those 3s were wide open. I am happy for JB but this team needs to find a way to take teams out of what they want to do offensively. They are a very exciting team and almost automatic on offense, but they need to D up if they want to live into late March/early April.

We definitely need to get better at our defensive rotations. Arkansas was also getting to the basket too easily in the second half. Horford may need more minutes; he's our only real shotblocking presence.

is basically irrelevant. As Kenpom likes to point out, a team has as much control over its opponents' 3 point shooting percentage as it does over their free throw shooting percentage. Which is to say, none at all. You can control how many 3s your opponents take. You can't control what happens once they take them.

Yes, but if you leave a good shooter wide open on the perimeter, he'll attempt more threes. If he has a guy in his grille, he won't. In our defense, we literally didn't prepare for Haydar (as Beilein acknowledged after the game) because we had no idea he was going to play, but going forward, we need to be quicker on our rotations.

as much stock in KenPom as I do the messages inside the fortune cookies I am about to eat. All I know is that Arkansas was rising and firing at will, with a hand not really to be found anywhere. An elite team gets stops. I believe the lack of defensive pressure is largely a product of Stu Douglas hangover as he was a specialist at making things difficult for an opposing team up top offensively. Somebody else will end up filling that role. But trust me when I tell you that our offensive production is really masking a pretty noticeable defensive deficiency, NC State, Bradley, and Arkansas have all really had their way with us, it was just a matter outscoring them. That is not a lasting recipe for success.

It's weird that our school record is only 209 wins. For various reasons, we've never really had a lifer at the position. Strack made the unusual choice to leave coaching to go into athletic administration (he later became Arizona's AD), Orr and Frieder left for more money elsewhere, and then Fisher of course was fired over the scandal.

Beilein should be able to easily set the record down the road. This year's team may well have another 20 wins in it.

I asked last week, after the announcers mentioned that he has never stayed at a school for more than 5 years, how long does he plan to stay? Can he ever hope for a team more fun to coach than this one?

Beilein has said a few times that he is getting older, has grandkids, and his kids who have settled into Ann Arbor as a home. Kind of tired of bouncing around. As of now sounds like he doesn't plan on coaching anywhere else in his career, especially since the new renovations puts M pretty high up in desirable jobs. Except for the obvious historic powers, where would he go?

I go back to the Johnny Orr days and Beilein is the best coach Michigan hoops has had in that time. Orr was a hoot of a guy and at times a great recruiter, but he wasn't the coach Beilein is. None of the rest even come close. Beilein does things the right way, is by all accounts a high character guy who brings in high character players, and now has built a talented team that's really fun to watch (for the most part). I hope they go far this season but regardless, I'm going to enjoy the ride. Go Blue!

Michigan is now the third school at which John Beilein has won more than 100 games regardless of level, and the second Division I school.

As for when he would hit 200 wins, as someone speculated above, his Division I totals average out to about 20 wins a year or so (although it seems like we're looking at a few seasons where we best that consistently), but even assuming 20 and add conference tournament and at least a couple March Madness wins, I can see a situation with this team where we are looking at 200 wins inside the next four years potentially. It's fun to think about being able to win at that clip - it seems achievable with Beilein and where this team is headed.

He deserves his success. His early years here were rough. When he lost to Harvard and Amaker, there was talk that one of the two caoches we got from WVU should be let go, and it wasn't Rich Rod.

He did it all from the ground up. He had little talent on the roster, dreary facilities, and a program overshadowed by football that had seen its glory fade into the long ago past.

It was only a few years ago when we were all watching with intense excitement on Selection Sunday to see if the team could finally make the NCAA tournament. Now were talking about winning the whole thing. Amazing.

I doubt Beilein wouldn't leave UM at this point. Not only has he said as much, but if you think about it, where would he go? Very few programs would be an upgrade at this point. He has shown he can recruit to a big time university now, so probably only something on Tobacco Road could lure him away...and does he really want to/has a chance to replace Coach K or Roy Williams at this point in his career?

I don't think he would want anything to do with Kentucky, since it would be tough for someone to go in there after Cal and have something other than constant turnover of 4-5 freshmen.

UCLA has the history, but they are a tire fire.

Kansas? Maybe.

Otherwise, he's sitting in the top basketball conference in the country for now (and the conceivable future) and has his team in the top teir of the conference. I can't imagine he would bolt this job for Indiana (should Crean get a call from the NBA, for example).

All the arguably better jobs out there are unlikely to have a new coach any time soon and I can't believe Beilein would go someplace where he didn't have time to work his system. He's almost 60 so I imagine he would rather stay where his system is already working, with great facilities and support.